11 October 2014

Peruvian Christmas cards tutorial

Today I'd like to share with you again the Christmas cards that I made two years ago, shortly after I'd been on holiday to Peru, and a bit about how I made them.

Soon after I came back from Peru one of the teachers asked me to give a presentation on card making to a couple of her classes. At that time I was starting to sketch out a few ideas for the cards I was going to make, based on my Peruvian holiday, so I used these ideas when I was creating the tutorial part of the slideshow.

If you click through the slideshow, you'll see some examples of the cards I've made over the years (some of my favourites!), and I explain some of the things I bear in mind when I'm making my cards, like cost and time to make.

Then I explain the process that I use to make my cards, with the example of a Peruvian mountain design:

1. Design:

Getting inspiration and drawing my ideas

2. Template:

Doing a drawing at the same size as the finished card

3. Cut:

Cutting out the template and using it to cut out coloured card or paper

4. Edges:

Using an ink pad or pen to add definition to the edges of the paper

5. Glue:

Gluing all the paper pieces in place

6. Details:

Adding any extra details or embellishments

After this I worked further on my Peruvian design, and came up with the four cards shown below: Llama, Peruvian person, Penguin (I saw penguins on the Ballestas Islands in Peru!), and Peruvian church (which was based on a small ornament I bought in Peru). It's not obvious the way I've laid them out below, but when they are placed in the order shown at the top of this blog post the hills match up to form a continuous landscape.

I gave the original four handmade cards to my family members, and I scanned them in and ordered printed versions to send to everyone else.